


The One With Trial and Error

by OmaDaKat



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Death, Ghosts, M/M, Murder, Murder Mystery, Paranormal, Possession, ZADE, ZADF, ZaDr, characters are aged up, ill be adding tags as i go, im trying, please spare me, so like highschool, uhh im bad at tags, writing on the spot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:21:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25047592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OmaDaKat/pseuds/OmaDaKat
Summary: 2 years has passed since a murder of a teenage boy took place, and the house he was killed in has been reports of paranormal activity since then. This of course catches Dib's attention so he decided to check it out. One thing leads to another and Dib is no longer... Dib?(I saw a few stories floating around about a possessed Dib and I just fell in love with the idea, so I decided to create one too. Please read that story!!First check out my main inspiration, who is known as @drawing_like_a_child on instagram!!!https://archiveofourown.org/works/24576955
Relationships: Dib/Zim (Invader Zim)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28





	1. So It Begins

The light that the teenaged boy held bounced off the empty walls. Each step made a creaking sound due to the old floorboards. All is silent except for his breath going in and out of his mouth out of fear. 

The boy darted his flashlight around to spot a closet in which he quickly ran into to hide. He hurriedly turned his flashlight off and looked up to quiet his breathing.

He heard a sharp scratching sound like a fork being dragged against a plate. It could be assumed that the now hiding teen was being chased by someone who was dragging a knife across the wall.

Footsteps kept creeping towards where the teenager was hiding till eventually they stopped in front of the closet.

"Tsk tsk tsk. You should know better. You know that I will find you." A soft voice said. It could be deduced that they were probably a teenage girl. 

Her steps continued forward and walked past the closet. The boy waited for a few seconds to pass. And a few more. Silence. Taking this as his cue, he carefully got out of the closet. He didn't see his pursuer anywhere so he began closing the door behind him when he was grabbed from behind. He began to scream but they became gurgles as his attacker slit his throat.

"I told you so." Were the last words he heard before the world went black. 

-2 years later-

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Dib was leaning back against his chair eating some potato chips as he read a forum on his laptop. The forum was talking about recent ghost sightings and activity in an abandoned house about one mile from where he lived. 

Dib was 18 and he was in his senior year. It was a skool night and he made the big mistake of reading up on an article he accidentally found, talking about the abandoned house. He noted the time being three am and let out a frustrated sigh. Too late to get any proper good sleep. This research became one big hole and hours of his time being spent. Though he wouldn't call it a big dud. He should be able to check it out later today, as it was officially Friday.

Dib closed his laptop with the intent of finally going to sleep.

\-----

  
When Dib's feet hit the entrance to the highskool, he felt the almost all nighter hit his body with aches. He really needed to learn to not stay up that late anymore. It was a bad old habit he needed to break.

"Out of my way!" A voice screeched, causing Dib to flinch in recognition.

"Dib-stink!" Zim called out for him. Dib pinched his nose in exasperation. 

"What do you want, Zim?"

Zim flashed him a toothy smile. "Aren't human monkeys supposed to greet each other if they know them?"

Dib narrowed his eyes at that remark, "And why are you choosing now to abide by human customs?"

Zim only shrugged, "Dunno."

The paranormal investigator eyed Zim. He seemed to be doing a lot better than a few years back. He shuddered at the thought of it. Dib found out through Gir that Zim found out his mission was a fake and went on a rampage in his house. Zim didn't dare come out for weeks but eventually he did go to school to keep up appearences. The only difference was he lost all of his confidence and was... silent. He always had this distant look on his face.

Dib had tried to enter Zim's house, but his yard defenses went off, and the security was air tight so he never got in. Though from what Gir told him, that was probably for the best. For the fact he wasn't in Zim's line of sight and the anger wasn't directed at him. It did surprise Dib when he didn't take it out on him though.

Zim's arrogance and confidence has been recovering for the past year, so at least he got past most of his moping phase. 

Dib shook his head to get out of his thoughts and walked into the school, Zim trailing after him.

"Zim, we don't have a class together until third period. So seriously, what do you want." Dib walked over to a set of lockers and began putting some textbooks into his bookbag he would need for the first four periods. 

Zim hesitated at his inquiry. It wasn't in his style to rely on the human for... items. But it is needed, "Zim needs use of your book of maths."

Dib almost dropped his pouch of pencils at Zim's request. Once he recovered the pouch before it fell to the floor and spilt, he placed them back into the locker, shutting it, and placing his bag back on his shoulder, "You need what now?"

Zim grumbled and gritted his teeth, "Your. Book. Of. Maths."

Dib's face went from the look of surprise to a mischievous smile. The alien was turning to an "inferior species" for help? This was too good.

Dib cuffed his hand around his ear as to hear better, "What was that? I didn't quite hear you."

The Irken's eye twitched, "Zim wants to borrow your math book, okay!? Gir ate mine all up and now I have nothing to refer to."

Dib raised an eyebrow, "Can't you just get your PAK to tell you how the math is done?"

"I could, but I wish to..." Zim rolled his hands as he thought of the phrase he is looking for, "not depend on my PAK for stuff like this."

Dib opened his locker back up, grabbed his math book, and handed it to Zim, "You can give it back to me in sixth, as my math class is seventh period."

Zim snatched the math book and scrambled to get away from Dib before he could say anymore.

Dib heaved out a sigh as he closed his locker back up once more and headed off to class.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was like written and published at 4 am, so don't mind any plot errors or grammar mistakes


	2. Trust

Dib chewed on the eraser of his pencil as he tuned out his science teacher. His attention was instead on Zim, per usual. As it was sixth period, he did get his math book back from Zim, who told him that he was able to reference the part he needed to know. Dib suspected that very soon a student in the school is going to be missing their math book.

While looking at Zim, Dib was able to think about how truely silly it was of how Zims disguise didn't change much. The only difference now was that he wore a red-orange hoodie instead of his tunic. He still had everything else for the most part.

Zim was fidgeting, and this was what had caught Dib's attention. It was unusual since Zim hasn't fidgeted like this in a good while, and he didn't do this unless something was wrong and bothering him. 

Suspicious, Dib pulled out his math book and began flipping through pages. As predicted, something was done to his book. There was a huge brown stain on about 20 pages, and at first he thought it was literal shit. But the sweet smell told him otherwise. Had to be either coffee or hot cocoa. Either way, his book was somewhat ruined.

Dib sent a glare towards Zim right when he took a glance at him back. Zim flinched, and Dib was able to place two and two together. The reason why Zim was nervous was because he was... afraid of Dib seeing the damage done to his book?

Once the class bell rung to signal the end of class, Dib pulled his stuff together and headed over to Zim's desk. A few students spared a look at the two but moved on, not wanted to be involved with their usual shenanigans, even if it didn't happen as much as it used to before.

Zim was in the middle of getting out of his seat when Dib approached him. In response, he got a glare from the Irken.

"Out of Zim's way, human." Zim stood up.

"Not until you explain this." Dib placed his math book on his desk and opened it up to the stain.

Zim simply shrugged, "A passerby tripped and spilt coffee on it. It's still readable so I don't see a problem."

Dib felt a headache coming on, "But there is a problem here. You broke my trust in getting it ruined in some way."

The Irken flashed a toothy smile at that, "Oh? Since when did I have your trust?"

Dib started stammering on his words at that, "I-I never did trust you! That's n-not what I meant at all!"

Zim got in Dib's face and snickered, "If you have no trust in me, then why did you lend me the book in the first place?"

Dib's face flushed a bright red at that and Zim used this opportunity to escape the classroom, leaving a stunned Dib behind.

\---

After skool ended, Dib began walking out of the building and looked around in the crowd of teenagers. His eyes stopped once they reached very sharp purple hair.

"Gaz!" He called out to her and pushed through the crowd. Once Dib was next to her, they fell into step next to each other, as if they've done this for years. And they have.

Gaz grew out of her wearing black phase for the most part, as she was wearing this short black leather jacket. She usually wore t-shirts with it along with blue jeans. Today, this was indeed fact, with the shirt being white. She also has aquired black fingerless gloves along with knee high brown boots. Comparing Dib to Gaz, with his usual black trench coat with a pair of jeans and today a red shirt, Gaz went through a lot more change than he has.

The demon-child gave him a grunt to acknowledge him as she was, a habit that will never leave her as long as she lived, playing her game slave.

"I was thinking about checking out the house I've been talking about today. I know that Dad won't be home this weekend, so it's the perfect opportunity! Though I do want to do last minute research before anything..." Dib kept rambling which made Gaz crack open one of her eyes at Dib.

"If you value your haunted baseball card collection, you will shut your mouth like a tree would." Gaz threatened. She usually wouldn't threaten him like this, as she used to do when they were younger, but today she was having a bad day and she didn't have patience to deal with Dib's shit.

"But trees don't have-" Dib stopped as he saw the death glare Gaz shot him as he tried to question her logic, "Noted."

The rest of the walk home was silent except for the music and beeps coming from Gaz's gameslave.

As soon as they arrived home, Dib went straight up to his room to carry on with his research. He grabbed his laptop, opened it up, and searched through his bookmarks for what he wanted. The website that was pulled up was one that was used last night and Dib began scrolling through it.

_Two years ago, a kid was found murdered in the house with his throat slit open. The authorities have yet to figure out who did it and the case has gone cold a year later after that with no suspects or leads. Ever since then people began exploring the house in hopes of contacting the spirit of the boy, but people either left the house babbling nonsense or with injuries._

It is very reasonable to believe that the boy's spirit is very angered, as he was murdered young. Anyone in their right mind would be pissed at that fact. Dib very well knew that dealing with an angry spirit is dangerous, but he has his equipment to help him through it.

After seeing that nothing was updated on the website, the laptop was closed up. The paranormal investigator then got his equipment together and left his room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaa this chapter is so much better than the last one and I apologize for that. I might go back and rewrite the first chapter 💀 Like I forgot so many details that I had to include in this one.
> 
> It'll be hard for me to write Gaz but it'll be fun!! She will have a bigger role later on.
> 
> Anywho I hoped you enjoyed and I don't mind feedback! I know that I'm not the best writer so I will take any advice I can get.


	3. Twist and Turns

Dib walked up to where the GPS was telling him to be at. He looked up from his phone to an old, abandoned house. It was wooden, the stereotype of what a haunted house should look like, if Dib was in a fiction. Though it did also have a modern feel.

It was about 9 pm when he arrived, he got lost a few times along the way and had to figure out transportation. No matter, it's better to do his investigation when it's late anyway.

The paranormal investigator walked up to the front steps that led up to the porch of the house, and with each step he heard a creak. Once on the porch, he pulled out his camera, set it to record, and let it hang on his neck. Who knows what it would catch? He repositioned his small duffle bag he brought along with his equipment in it. He then eyed the door.

Dib took a deep breath as he forced himself to go through the door. It was rather dark, so he brought out his flashlight and first tried the light switch. When it didn't turn on, he activated the flashlight and shined it down the foyer. It was rather long and musky, so Dib began to feel a sneeze come along.

Rubbing his nose, Dib walked forward and shined the light around, trying to get an idea of the place. The foyer opened up into a living room and it of course held old furniture in which Dib didn't dare touch lest he stirred up the dust. To the right, he saw a staircase next to a hallway, and to the left a shorter hallway which he assumed probably held a bathroom and at least the door to the garage. Dib chose to go to the shorter hallway first, and was correct about his assumption. The bathroom was rather small and only held a toilet and a sink, while the other door in the hallway did in fact lead into the garage. He left this hallway and headed over to the other one. Upon arrival he noticed that it wasn't as long as he thought. He explored it to find out it held two guest rooms and an office. Nothing of interest.

Leaving that hallway also, Dib made his way up the stair case, and they felt taller than it looked. Once he reached the top he lost some of his breath and leaned on the banister to gather himself back together. Once recovered, he let the light from his flashlight dance in the halls as he began exploring. The hallways seemed to be... too long. Like it didn't line up with the bottom floor. Weird architecture.

With exploring he did find 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, an art studio, another office, and 2 closets. He was standing outside of one of the closets right now and it felt... odd. He opened the door to it and noticed nothing out of the ordinary. Though that didn't stop a shiver that ran through him. He closed the door once more and went off to find one of the bedrooms to set up his equipment. Dib set up a tripod with its camera in the bedroom he had decided to set as the main room he would camp out in. It seemed to be the most promising as the room held furniture that was thrown to the side, pictures ripped off the walls, and just a bunch of other damages that implies that it was done in a rage.

With making sure the camera was blinking it's red light, telling Dib that it was recording, he backed up and left the room to set up some more cameras (little did he know that this will later be futile). Even so, he placed about two more cameras and was moving onto the art studio. He looked around, and not to his surprise, the room was practically rotting and the abandoned art pieces and materials were beginning to decompose at this point. He walked over to an easel and noticed that it had a canvas on it. Upon closer inspection, it can be seen that the paint is relatively... fresh, compared to the state of the room. Fascinated, he took the painting off of it to get a closer look, but in the middle of doing so, something whizzed past his face and he froze.

On the wall behind him was a fettling knife.

The paranormal investigator, pushing down his fear, put the painting back and worked quickly to set up the camera. Once done, he went over to the wall to see what the clay tool is about. It looked like it was recently used as well, much like the painting that was in the center of the room. If the fettling knife was thrown one inch to the right.... Dib shivered. There was defiantly something in this house, but he had to get them to interact with him in a different way for proof. Knife throwing won't be enough.

Dib left the art studio and walked past the odd closet once more. He stopped walking and looked back at it. It still didn't feel right... He went up to it, opening the door.

Something was amiss. It didn't look like how it looked earlier. Last time he checked, it held coats and a mop. Now? It holds dresses and tuxedos.

"W- what is this?" Dib in his normalcy, said out loud as he pulled a tuxedo out, "This wasn't here before!"

As he went to investigate it more closely, it felt like the clothing was burning him and he dropped it immediately. Kicking it back into the closet, he closed it and quickly ran back to the shredded bedroom in the house. Shaking, he took deep breaths as he reminded himself that this was normal for spirits and such. He was lucky that it was nothing worse.

The paranormal investigator, once calmed down, began digging through his equipment and brought out a spirit box. It was rather small for what they're known for but he has faith in it. It was also in his budget so he jumped on the chance. Before he got a chance to turn it on, he heard a THUMP. Startled, he looked towards the doorway and waited, listening.

When nothing happened Dib got up and carefully walked outside, taking his spirit box with him. He looked up and down the hallway, not leaving the door frame. Upon seeing nothing, his eyes furrowed and walked down where he thought he heard the noise. He now heard a scraping sound when he walked by a closet.

The closet that changed its contents.

He reached out to open it and found the closet once again full of coats and a mop.

Getting an idea, Dib turned on the spirit box to hear a low steady sound of static and placed it on the floor of the closet. He then proceeded to try to pick up the coat that was on the floor, but it was snagged on something so he heard a tearing fabric sound and winced. That... had to not be good. Especially since the static sounds were changing since he did that. The sounds got higher and higher, to the point Dib covered his ears and scrunched his eyes closed in pain. Though after a bit of time he went to turn off the machine, only for his arm to suddenly feel as cold as a popsicle and it went numb as soon as he made contact with it. Next thing Dib knew, the world went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry this took so much longer to complete than I predicted. School has been kicking me in the butt. But I do have some good news! I am writing a oneshot in the same timeline (different story) with my own cryptid, so there is that to look forward to! Also I noticed I wrote in the last chapter notes that Gaz gets a bigger role later on, and I totally forgot what it is. But dw I'll figure it out (:<

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed what adventure this is going to be. Don't kill me and my beta for any mistakes 💀 it's like 4 am as I am posting this and we are tired af.


End file.
